The Serpentine Gallery is hosting the first major solo exhibition of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in her hometown of London. Included is the painting Any Number of Preoccupations, among other important works. A catalogue and a limited-edition print have also been produced.

The Art Gallery of Ontario | AGO’s celebrated exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat NOW’S THE TIME recently opened at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Included are 12 photographs from the Wedge Collection: film stills from Downtown 81 by director Edo Bertoglio, featuring Basquiat at work and play in 1980s New York City.

Jérôme Havre‘s Anthropologie de l’image is included a group show curated by Pamela Edmonds and Magdalyn Asimakis, timed to coincide with the hosting of the Pan Am Games in Toronto. Between Spheres presents the work of ten local and international contemporary artists who explore issues of identity, human relationships, place and movement.

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/wedge-curatorial-projects-shares-exhibitions-news/feed/0Call for Entries: International Reggae Poster Contest 2015http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/call-for-entries-international-reggae-poster-contest-2015/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=call-for-entries-international-reggae-poster-contest-2015
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/call-for-entries-international-reggae-poster-contest-2015/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 10:00:00 +0000ARC Magazinehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51644The International Reggae Poster Contest (IRPC) announces its 4th annual call for entries for poster designs worldwide. The contest has been running annually since 2011. This year’s theme is ‘Toward a Reggae Hall of Fame: Celebrating Great Jamaican Music’. The entry period is between July 15 – October 15, 2015 (12am EST).

The goal is simple: Create a poster about Reggae Music – the rest is up to your imagination. Feel free to explore themes of Reggae covering any one of the genres; Ska, Rocksteady, Roots Reggae, Dub, Dancehall and the unique Jamaican Sound-system.

Eligibility:

The Forth International Reggae Poster Contest 2015 is open to designers all over the world. Posters may be designed by a single artist or by a team. Designers are allowed to submit any number of original posters. Posters should be original artworks and should not have been published in prints, internet, social media etc.

International Reggae Poster Contest 2015 will reward the best 100 designs by including them in various exhibitions to be curated globally. A book with all 100 posters will be published. The three top winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd place) will receive the grand prize awards, with more amazing prizes to be announced later, including lots of great reggae music..

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/call-for-entries-international-reggae-poster-contest-2015/feed/0New beginnings this summer at the NAGBhttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/new-beginnings-this-summer-at-the-nagb/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-beginnings-this-summer-at-the-nagb
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/new-beginnings-this-summer-at-the-nagb/#commentsMon, 27 Jul 2015 10:00:30 +0000ARC Magazinehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51691Last week, the NAGB team said a sorrowful farewell to Alan Wallace’s vibrant mural that adorned the face of the gallery’s annex for two years. Painted by the popular artist and participants of the 2013 National Art Gallery Summer camp, the mural was a lively reminder of ways younger generations can contribute to the development of national institutions and the beautification of public spaces.

AJ Watson Mural at the NAGB as a part of the NAGB’s summer Project. Images courtesy of the NAGB

This year, the NAGB Mixed Media Art Summer Camp has the pleasure of offering a public space to artist AJ Watson, who is known for using his large-scale paintings to advocate for socially progressive causes. This summer, though, Watson has visions of transforming the gallery’s outdoor wall-space into something to be appreciated by people from all walks of life. “It will be a pop-style kind of piece, like what Roy Lichtenstein did but a little bit more urban,” he explained.

A New York-born pop artist now deceased, Roy Lichtenstein is probably best remembered by his bright, comic-style works parodying American pop culture. Another fresh and energetic visual is precisely what the gallery is looking for to engage its campers in a new artform and intrigue visitors. Putting out a call to artists for mural proposals in March, the gallery welcomed submissions reflecting the summer camp’s kid and community-friendly theme. Answering the call, Watson hoped his design would excite campers, who will be helping him paint it, while promoting accessibility to art and local talent.

A noted muralist, Watson credits his early start in illicit graffitiing with his current-day affinity for oversized works. An advocate for accessibility to artwork, Watson’s murals are scattered throughout New Providence; one of his most popular ones is located on Mackey Street, across from Rosetta Street. “I like painting large-scale and its public, so that’s good. A lot of people will see it, and it’s good exposure,” he said.

AJ Watson Mural at the NAGB as a part of the NAGB’s summer Project. Images courtesy of the NAGB

He added: “I think there should be more large-scale murals and more artwork that’s more accessible to everyone.” This fits in well with the NAGB’s “community first” motto – a mission statement reflecting the gallery’s commitment to transcending social barriers and broadening the Bahamian art movement’s impact throughout the country and world. “I just want to have a good time and let the kids have a good time and paint something that’s worth looking at in the end,” he said.

The NAGB Mixed Media Art Summer Camp is open to kids ages five to 15 with an interest in art. Camp will be held Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The first session of the NAGB Mixed Media Art Summer Camp will run from June 22 to July 9, and the second will run from July 13 to 31. To register, contact Abby Smith at asmith@nagb.org.bs or Corinne Lampkin at clampkin@nagb.org.bs, or call 328-5800.

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/new-beginnings-this-summer-at-the-nagb/feed/0Richard Taittinger Gallery presents ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=guess-whos-coming-to-dinner
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/#commentsMon, 27 Jul 2015 10:00:21 +0000Sasha Deeshttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51679Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York is proud to present ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’, a summer showcase of works by an exciting crop of contemporary artists from Africa, curated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, artist, art historian and specialist in modern and contemporary African and African Diaspora arts. Sasha Dees shares an overview of the show, which celebrates African art and serves as a crucial platform for its visibility in New York. The exhibition runs until August 23, 2015.

All photos are courtesy of the artists and the Richard Taittinger Gallery.

Gopal Dagnogo – Panoramic Still Life, 2015.

“Folks can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that African artists have now taken and secured their seat at the dinner table, invited or not!” – Chika Okeke-Agulu

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? is a survey of contemporary African art curated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi. Borrowing its title from Sidney Poitier’s 1967 classic film, the exhibition celebrates the growing impact of African art on the global stage.

Dagnogo’s large and bright canvases pull you into the gallery. Up close the works are very layered, and if we take time we can find multiple points of entry. They talk about materialism and the rat race people are in to become ‘haves’ instead of ‘have nots’. We can see specific colonial next to universal everyday day references. In Dagnogo’s view, capitalism, its marketing and branding as well the western concept of democracy have destroyed the social community structures and leadership that worked and were common to the continent Africa. This led to a change in mentality of the people and left many countries in disarray.

Uche Uzorka, Alien Indigene, 2014.

Most of the other works in the exhibit also talk about the challenges African countries and its citizens had and still have, after the end of the occupation by European countries and the trauma the Europeans left behind. Others talk about the everyday life and experiences of people of African descent working and living outside Africa. All works are critically engaged and intersect with global, universal views that are specific to international contemporary art practice.

Amina Menia, Chrysanthemes, 2009.

Halida Boughriet, Diner des Anonymous, 2014.

Installation view.

Opening.

Amalia Ramanakarihina, Family Portraits, 2013.

Beatrice Wanjiku, the Strangeness of my Madness IV, 2015.

Ephrem Solomon, Forbidden Fruit Series, 2014.

Folks indeed better come to terms with seats at the dinner table being secured by none white artists. The Venice Biennale as well as fairs, museums and galleries in the UK and US in the past 5 – 10 years have increasingly and successfully begun to open up. Rightfully so, given that the European occupation in other continents has mostly ended! In order to keep its relevance, the art world has to be reflective of what and who we are today.

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/feed/0Princeton Arts Fellowships: 2016–18 applicationhttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/princeton-arts-fellowships-2016-18-application/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=princeton-arts-fellowships-2016-18-application
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/princeton-arts-fellowships-2016-18-application/#commentsSun, 26 Jul 2015 16:00:31 +0000ARC Magazinehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51660Princeton Arts Fellowships, funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will be awarded to artists whose achievements have been recognized as demonstrating extraordinary promise in any area of artistic practice and teaching. Applicants should be early career composers, visual artists, conductors, musicians, choreographers, filmmakers, performers, directors or performance artists—this list is not meant to be exhaustive—who would find it beneficial to spend two years working in an artistically vibrant university community. The application deadline is September 14, 2015, 11:59pm EST.

Denise Applewhite, Princeton University Office of Communications.

Princeton Arts Fellows spend two consecutive academic years (September 1–July 1) at Princeton University, and formal teaching is expected. The normal work assignment will be to teach one course each semester subject to approval by the Dean of the Faculty, but fellows may be asked to take on an artistic assignment in lieu of a class, such as directing a play or creating a dance with students. Although the teaching load is light, our expectation is that Fellows will be full and active members of our community, committed to frequent and engaged interactions with students during the academic year.

A 79,000 USD a year stipend is provided. Fellowships are not intended to fund work leading to an advanced degree. One need not be a US citizen to apply. Holders of PhD degrees from Princeton are not eligible to apply.

Candidates are asked to submit an online application by September 14, 2015, 11:59pm EST. All applicants must submit a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, a statement of 500–750 words about how you would hope to use the two years of the fellowship at this moment in your career, and contact information for three references. In addition, work samples are requested to be submitted online (i.e., writing sample, images of your work, video links to performances, etc.).

Applicants can only apply for the Princeton Arts Fellowship twice in a lifetime.

The application cycle for the 2016–18 round of Fellows will begin in July 2015 with a submission deadline of September 14, 2015, 11:59pm EST. Please apply here.

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/princeton-arts-fellowships-2016-18-application/feed/0National Gallery of Jamaica shares ‘Ten Artists Selected for Young Talent 2015′http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/national-gallery-of-jamaica-shares-ten-artists-selected-for-young-talent-2015/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=national-gallery-of-jamaica-shares-ten-artists-selected-for-young-talent-2015
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/national-gallery-of-jamaica-shares-ten-artists-selected-for-young-talent-2015/#commentsSun, 26 Jul 2015 10:00:02 +0000ARC Magazinehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51636The National Gallery of Jamaica’s (NGJ) Young Talent exhibition series was introduced in 1985 and has seen five editions thus far, the last of which – Young Talent V – was held in 2010. The purpose of this exhibition series is to provide exposure to the work of artists under forty years old, in and from Jamaica, and the series supports an important aspect of the NGJ’s mandate, which is to actively encourage new developments in Jamaican art and to support the work of young and emerging artists. The series also encourages public critical dialogue about new directions in Jamaican art and culture and provides a platform for innovative curatorial practice.

Another exhibition in the Young Talent series is scheduled open on August 30, 2015 and will feature ten artists under forty, namely Greg Bailey, Alicia Brown, Katrina Coombs, Di-Andre Caprice Davis, Domanie Denniston, Monique Gilpin, Howard Myrie, Richard Nattoo, Avagaye Osborne, and Cosmo Whyte. The selection process for Young Talent 2015 was based on a call for submissions and a total of thirty-five entries were received. While the original intent was to feature only eight artists, the curatorial team decided to increase this number to ten, in response to the quality and range of entries. The selections were made by Executive Director Veerle Poupeye, Senior Curator O’Neil Lawrence and Assistant Curators Monique Barnett-Davidson and Tesha Chai, who will also serve as the curatorial team for this exhibition.

Greg Bailey – No Blue Skies in the Land of Sunshine (2013).

Young Talent 2015 covers a healthy range of contemporary art practices, from the realist portrait paintings of Greg Bailey and Alicia Brown to the textile- and fibre-based works of Katrina Coombs and Avagaye Osborne. The focus on textile- and fibre-based media is a relatively new development in local contemporary art and is part of a broader trend of experimentation with media, which is also evident in the glass-based work of Howard Myrie, Richard Nattoo and Domanie Denniston. As in Young Talent V and New Roots, there is a strong representation of photography-based media, as can be seen in the work of Domanie Denniston, Di-andre Caprice Davis, Monique Gilpin and Cosmo Whyte, although the latter now also produces three-dimensional constructions. While there is no deliberate common theme in the exhibition, the works selected are perhaps best understood as a mirror of the contemporary world, in Jamaica and globally and address issues such as the politics of gender, sexuality and race and, in several instances, use subtle formal and verbal strategies to make powerful statements that all lives matter.

In all, Young Talent 2015 promises to be a strong, engaging and at times provocative exhibition and a worthy successor to Young Talent V and New Roots.

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/national-gallery-of-jamaica-shares-ten-artists-selected-for-young-talent-2015/feed/0New Museum appoints Gary Carrion-Murayari and Alex Gartenfeld as curators of the 2018 New Museum Triennialhttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/new-museum-appoints-gary-carrion-murayari-and-alex-gartenfeld-as-curators-of-the-2018-new-museum-triennial/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-museum-appoints-gary-carrion-murayari-and-alex-gartenfeld-as-curators-of-the-2018-new-museum-triennial
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/new-museum-appoints-gary-carrion-murayari-and-alex-gartenfeld-as-curators-of-the-2018-new-museum-triennial/#commentsSat, 25 Jul 2015 17:33:17 +0000ARC Magazinehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51585Following the success of the 2015 Triennial: “Surround Audience”, the New Museum, New York has begun preparations for the next edition of the Triennial. Today, Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director, announced that Gary Carrion-Murayari and Alex Gartenfeld will curate the Museum’s fourth Triennial exhibition in 2018. Carrion-Murayari is Kraus Family Curator at the New Museum, while Gartenfeld is founding Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.

Gary Carrion-Murayari and Alex Gartenfeld. Photo courtesy of New Museum.

Launched in 2009, the critically acclaimed Triennial is a signature initiative of the New Museum and is the only recurring international exhibition in the country devoted to emerging artists from around the world, providing an important platform for young artists who are shaping the current discourse of contemporary art and the future of culture. The first edition in 2009, “Younger Than Jesus,” featured fifty artists from twenty-five countries and focused on the emergence of a new generation of artists. The second Triennial in 2012, “The Ungovernables,” featured a global roster of thirty-four artists, artist groups, and collectives from more than twenty-three countries. The most recent edition, “Surround Audience,” which was on view from February to May 2015 and featured fifty-one artists from twenty-five countries, was curated by Lauren Cornell, Curator and Associate Director, Technology Initiatives, at the New Museum and artist Ryan Trecartin.

“Each edition of the Triennial has had a strong, defining viewpoint that has both illuminated international developments of an emerging generation and suggested future trends,” said Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director. “We look forward to the fresh thinking and research that this team will bring to the 2018 edition.”

Gioni added, “I cannot think of two curators who are more in tune with emerging art today than Gary Carrion-Murayari and Alex Gartenfeld. They are young, but their achievements and careers are impressive. They will form quite a dynamic team.”

The research for the Triennial will take place while Carrion-Murayari and Gartenfeld continue to realize a range of exciting upcoming projects and activities at their respective institutions.

Alex Gartenfeld is the founding Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, where he has organized solo exhibitions for Virginia Overton, Pedro Reyes, Ryan Sullivan, and Andra Ursuta, among others. Forthcoming are monographic exhibitions of work by Alex Bag, Shannon Ebner, and John Miller. In support of ICA Miami’s mission to provide a platform for the work of the most experimental artists practicing today and the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally, Gartenfeld also oversees educational programming, public programs, and catalogues for the museum. In April 2013, Gartenfeld co-curated “Empire State” for Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome. Gartenfeld previously organized exhibitions at the Zabludowicz Collection, London, and the School of Visual Arts, New York, among other venues. Between 2009 and 2013, Gartenfeld cofounded two alternative exhibition spaces in New York, Three’s Company and West Street Gallery. From 2008 to 2013, he was Senior Editor at Art in America and Interview magazine. Gartenfeld is a frequent contributor to international scholarly journals and an editor-at-large at Art in America.

Gary Carrion-Murayari is Kraus Family Curator at the New Museum, where he has been an integral part of the curatorial team since joining the staff in 2010. Over the past five years, he has curated solo exhibitions for Phyllida Barlow, Ellen Gallagher, Haroon Mirza, and Camille Henrot, among others. He has also co-curated several New Museum exhibitions, including “Ghosts in the Machine,” “NYC 1993,” “Here and Elsewhere,” and “Chris Ofili: Night and Day.” He previously worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art for seven years, where he organized solo presentations of work by Elad Lassry and Karthik Pandian, and co-curated a number of group exhibitions. Carrion-Murayari was the co-curator, with Francesco Bonami, of the 2010 Whitney Biennial. He has contributed to numerous publications and exhibition catalogues, and has edited and overseen the production of several New Museum catalogues over the past five years. He is currently co-organizing a retrospective exhibition on the artist Jim Shaw, which will open at the New Museum in October.

About New Museum

The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a place of ongoing experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

Several years ago Marcel Pinas (Pelgrimkondre, Marowijne, 1971) rediscovered drawing. Not the realistic type of drawing he once started his career with, but animated black shapes on a white surface. Those shapes are derived from Afaka-characters, the syllable script that was developed early on in the 20th century in his birth district by Afaka Atumisi. From a distance they resemble swarms without a clear identity. Occasionally he adds a smudge of color or a smudge of black.

In this work he combines this new development with the work that he made earlier. Here the black signs become part of a larger whole. They look like they have been strewn randomly on top. The center of the work shows the shape of a cross, made from pieces of pangi cloth. The cloth refers to the traditional Maroon culture, the cross does not have a religious background, but it refers to his youth, during which playing and various games were part of daily entertainment. The color smudges that have been added to the work supplement that interpretation. They come across as the visual language of a child. Similar to the visual language that also inspired CoBrA-artists such as Appel and Corneille.

Pinas often fills his canvas or sheet of paper completely. He creates the necessary depth by layering color and image planes over one another. In comparison, this work is rather bare and austere. The effect of the bareness is that the attention of the viewer becomes focused on the center, on the part that it’s ultimately about: the portrayal of a joyful childhood in an originally safe environment that would later, because of the war in the interior, become compromised.

Marcel Pinas strives for the preservation of the Maroon culture. In his Moengo-project he does this by organizing various practical activities that could contribute to this, and that could stimulate the people’s confidence in their own capabilities. In his free work he succeeds in using an imagery that indirectly intends to do the same, but that manages to also, for those not involved, deliver results that intrigue, trigger emotions and discussions, but at the same time can and may be an esthetical experience as well.

For more work from Marcel Pinas, visit the Readytex Art Gallery, Steenbakkerijstraat 30, Paramaribo.

About Rob Perrée

Rob Perrée is art historian and works as freelance writer, art critic and curator, specialized in contemporary (Afro-) American art, African art and art using new media. His work has appeared in countless catalogues, books, magazines and newspapers. He is editor of Sranan Art Xposed, editor in chief of Africanah.org and a member of the editing team of Pf Photo Magazine.

]]>http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/an-eye-for-art-rob-perree-reviews-awewe-faaka-tiki-2-by-marcel-pinas/feed/0Call for applications: PhD in Curatorial Practice at Monash University Art Design & Architecturehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/call-for-applications-phd-in-curatorial-practice-at-monash-university-art-design-architecture/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=call-for-applications-phd-in-curatorial-practice-at-monash-university-art-design-architecture
http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2015/07/call-for-applications-phd-in-curatorial-practice-at-monash-university-art-design-architecture/#commentsFri, 24 Jul 2015 16:00:47 +0000ARC Magazinehttp://arcthemagazine.com/arc/?p=51648Monash University Art Design & Architecture (MADA) in Melbourne, Australia invites applications for the PhD specialisation in Curatorial Practice. Launched in 2014, the PhD in Curatorial Practice is practice-based and supports a spectrum of doctoral projects that reflect critically on how we engage with our cultures, our cities and our world. It fosters curatorial projects that test the limits of art institutions. It supports advanced scholarly work on exhibitions and their histories, conditions of art’s public appearance, and the politics of display. Finally, the program nurtures spaces of retreat to allow forms of research beyond those that normally occur within the framework of educational institutions. The deadline for expression of interest is 30 September, 2015. The application deadline for scholarship consideration is 31 October, 2015.

Candidates will have advanced knowledge of art, art history, arts institutions, and curating, or relevant fields of inquiry. They are required to hold a minimum four-year Bachelor’s degree with Honours, and preferably hold a research Master’s qualification in a relevant discipline. Candidates must apply with a specific research project in mind. The program is open to applicants whose projects are interdisciplinary or historical in nature. Scholarships (tuition and stipend) are available to qualified applicants, subject to university scholarship assessment and terms and conditions.

Communities

One of the strongest advantages of the Curatorial Practice PhD is its location within an art school. MADA is a catalyst for creative engagement in the visual arts and supports an active community of the country’s leading artists, designers, architects, thinkers and cultural producers. Curatorial work is inherently dialogic, research based, and interdisciplinary, and candidates benefit from regular formal and informal encounters with artists.

The PhD program collaborates with key local and international institutions, including the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), a museum of contemporary art committed to innovative and research-based art and curatorial practice. 2016 inaugurates a Curatorial Visiting Scholar exchange program with NTU CCA Singapore, a national research centre of the Nanyang Technological University and the Department of Art Research Programmes at Goldsmiths. Recent events include lectures by Claire Bishop and Misal Adnan Yıldız; workshops with Chris Kraus, Charles Esche and Raqs Media Collective; and the 2015 Vessel/MADA International Curatorial Retreat, a five-day seminar held in Bari, Italy.

The PhD program is led by Tara McDowell, Associate Professor and Director of Curatorial Practice at MADA. McDowell is co-curator of the 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, editor at large of The Exhibitionist, and has held curatorial appointments at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where she mounted numerous group and solo exhibitions. She publishes and lectures frequently, and holds a PhD in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2016, Curatorial Practice welcomes Helen Hughes as Lecturer in Art History and Curatorial Practice. Hughes is Curator at Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne, co-founder and co-editor of the contemporary art journal Discipline, and recently completed a PhD in Art History from the University of Melbourne.

Application details can be found here. EOI and how-to-apply process details here.

The travelling show, presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico (2014), the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (NMPRAC) of Chicago (April 2, 2015), brings together a group of renowned contemporary Puerto Rican artists featured in the publication, Art Cities of the Future: 21st Century Avant-Gardes of Phaidon Press, which positions to San Juan of Puerto Rico among the twelve cities avant-garde in contemporary art worldwide.

These artists echo the contemporary production of the art scene in Puerto Rico in the last decade. They are established figures that work in different media (traditional and nontraditional), but all share two qualities: a commitment to experimental art and a dedication to the local environment by exploring the artistic cultural heritage and the contemporary frame of mind of Island. They live and produce their work from the Island to the world, transcending borders.

Under the curatorship of Marina Reyes Franco, Calibán, arises from a postcolonial perspective and uses as reference the essays Calibán, by Roberto Fernández Retamar and El Destierro de Calibán by Ivan de la Nuez and the interpreted literary analysis of the characters in the play, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, with its references to the Caribbean and Latin American.

The exhibition includes a selection of representative works, and commissioned work of the artists including drawing, installation, sculpture, video and painting.

Calibán, is taken as a proposal to explore a dual purpose, being a display exhibition and a space so that the narrative of the art scene is discussed by those who built it. “More than an instance of showing work is the opportunity to retake the word about how artists in Puerto Rico and the scene are understood and represented locally and its relevance to the art scene worldwide. The works displayed here explore various approaches thematic collaborative work, not only in the realization of parts, but the participation of the public, either through the positioning of the body or with the activation of the works in room,” stated Marina Reyes Franco.

In order to provoke an active participation of the public, the exhibition is accompanied by a series of talks in which turns the display through conferences and musical performances. The first on will be held on the opening night.

“The Puerto Rico Tourism Company is proud to sponsor Calibán, an exhibition that portrays the talent of our contemporary artists, which are the honorable reason for San Juan to be selected among the 12 cities avant-garde in the world of contemporary art, contributing to the projection of the Island as a cultural destination of five-star,” said Ingrid I. Rivera Rocafort, Executive Director Puerto Rico Tourism Company.

The exhibition is possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, Municipal of San Juan, Magic Transport and Sajo, Alcazar & García (SAG).

Calibán will be in exhibition at Instituto Cervantes New York, July 30 – thru August 29, 2015 at 211 East 49th Street, New York , NY 10017. For more information, you may contact 212. 308. 7720 or visit the Instituto Cervantes website.

About the artists:

Alia Farid

Alia Farid (b.1985, Kuwait City, Kuwait) is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist working at the intersections of art, architecture and the public realm through the activation of spaces for critical thinking and action. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from La Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico (Viejo San Juan), a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Visual Arts Program at MIT (Cambridge, MA), and a Master in Museum Studies and Critical Theory from the Programa d’Estudis Independents at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Catalonia). She has completed residencies at Beta Local (San Juan), Casa Árabe (Córdoba), the Serpentine Galleries (London) and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha). She currently works in the Heritage and Museums Department of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters of Kuwait on developing public programs and enhancing cross-institutional relationships.I began making work somewhere between art, architecture, and urban anthropology. Today I’m still interested in these areas, but with a much more focused point in telling how informal networks are forced to make up for lack of formal structure as one of the things I value most is the subversive quality of work that goes unnoticed. Her most ambitious project to date has been curating the Pavilion of Kuwait at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, which – despite it’s appearance at la Biennale di Venezia – placed emphasis on what participating could induce locally in an environment driven by ideologies incongruent with critical and aesthetic thought.

Chemi Rosado-Seijo

Chemi Rosado-Seijo (b. 1973, Vega Alta, Puerto Rico) graduated from the painting department of the Puerto Rico School of Visual Arts in 1997. In 1998, he worked with Michy Marxuach to open a gallery that transformed into a not-for-profit organization presenting resources and exhibitions for contemporary artists in Puerto Rico. In 2000, Rosado had his first solo show at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, including interventions on billboards around the city. Since 2002, he has worked with residents of the El Cerro community in the town of Naranjito to present public art projects, workshops and other community initiatives. In 2006, he inaugurated La Perla’s Bowl, a sculpture built with residents of San Juan’s La Perla community that functions as both a skateboarding ramp and an actual pool. Since 2009, Rosado-Seijo has been organizing exhibitions in his apartment in Santurce, creating a center for meeting and exchange in the Puerto Rican contemporary art scene. Rosado-Seijo has participated in several biennials, including the Whitney Biennial (2002), Prague Biennale 2 (2005), Bienal de la Habana (2006) and the Pontevedra Biennial (2010). Selected exhibitions include My Brain Is My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process at the Canbrook Art Museum in Detroit, Art/Community/Life at the Petrach Tikva Museum in Israel and 173 Days in the Tropical Forest at Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam. He has received grants from Creative Capital (2013) and the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2011). His work was recently included in the Phaidon publication Art Cities of the Future: 21st-Century Avant-Gardes.

Melvin Martinez

Melvin Martinez (b. 1973, San Juan, Puerto Rico) received his BFA from the School of Fine Arts, San Juan in 2005. The same year, Martinez won the prestigious Castellón Painting Prize (Spain). Martínez makes paintings that bring affect to the brink of autopoiesis. In a deluge of color and application that vibrates as if sonic, his works occupy oil, acrylic, glitter, confetti and decorative craft materials beyond ontological loyalties. The paintings renegotiate Martinez’s debt to the optics of Pointillism, anarchy of Abstract Expressionism, resplendence of color field painting or embodied summons of gestural abstraction. Martinez negates indebtedness by reimagining the currency of creative capital. His work has been exhibited in important institutions internationally, has been reviewed in important publications, and is in major collections in the United States, Europe and Latin America. His work is included in Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Museo de Bellas Artes, Castellon, Spain; Espai D’Art Contemporani, Castellon, Spain; Museum Collection Lambert, Avignon, France; MAP, Museum of Ponce, Puerto Rico; MAC, Museum of Contemporary Art, Puerto Rico; VAC, Valencia Arte Contemporáneo, Valencia, Spain; Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville; Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California; The Rubell Family Collection, among others. His work was recently included in the Phaidon publication Art Cities of the Future: 21st-Century Avant-Gardes.

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa (b. 1982, Bayamón, Puerto Rico) obtained his BFA in Painting from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas (2007) and participated in La Práctica, a program at Beta Local (2013), both in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In his work, Figueroa constructs systems that evoke and celebrate life; life thought of and lived as climate, flora, fauna, music, food, clothes and bars. The idea of living in the tropics, not only as a visual reference, but as an artistic position, is central to his work.

Figueroa enables spaces for interaction between artistic practice and conviviality of the viewers. His projects take the shape of installations, ready-mades, painting and drawing. He feels a particular preoccupation with cultural endeavors and has become an active agent in collaborations between people from different art and music scenes.His work Tree House – Casa Club, built in the Bosque Auxiliar in Naguabo, Puerto Rico, is emblematic of his larger body of work: a sculpture built atop a tree that serves as a literal and metaphorical platform for sociability through exhibitions and concerts. His international presence has intensified after being included in the Whitney Biennial of American Art (2014) with his piece Breaking the Ice, a livable sculpture in the museum’s sculpture court, that was activated several times during the biennial with interventions by invited musicians. Other recent exhibitions include Naguabo Rainbow Daguao Enchumbao Fango Fireflies at the Sculture Center in New York and his residency in Buenos Aires for the exhibition Sucursal, La Ene at MALBA, which resulted in his inclusion in the collection of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires in Argentina. His work is also part of the collection of La Ene – Nuevo Museo Energía de Arte Contemporáneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina and numerous private collections.

Jesús ‘Bubu’ Negrón was born in 1975, in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. He is one of Puerto Rico’s most accomplished contemporary artists and also part of San Juan’s vibrant art community. Negrón lives in Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Upon completion of his first artist residency with M&M Proyectos in 2002 in Puerto Rico, Negron’s work has been displayed in renowned galleries and institutions around the world.

Some of his most notable collaborations include: The Obscenity of the Jungle with Proyectos Ultravioleta for SWAB Barcelona in Spain (2013); the 1st Bienal Tropical in Puerto Rico (2011),where he was awarded the “Golden Pineapple” prize for best artist; Interpretation of the “Soneto de las estrellas” with Proyecto Siqueiros in Mexico (2013), curated by Taiyana Pimentel; Trienal Poligráfica in Puerto Rico (2009), curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Julieta González and Jens Hoffmann; Sharjah Biennial in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2007), curated by Mohammed Kazem, Eva Scharrer and Jonathan Watkins; Whitney Biennial in New York (2006), curated by Chrissie Iles and Phillipe Vergne; the T1 Torino Trienale in Italy (2005), curated by Francesco Bonami and Carolyn Christov–Bakargiev, and Tropical Abstraction at the Steidelijk Bureau Museum in Amsterdam (2005), curated by Ross Gortzak. Distinguished solo shows include: Abstraction from Cardboard and Carnival, at Roberto Paradise in Puerto Rico (2014); Low Budget Drawings with Roberto Paradise at ARCO in Spain (2013) and Folkloric Encounter Between Loíza-Zürich at Christinger de Mayo in Zürich, Switzerland. Jesús ‘Bubu’ Negron’s work consists in expressing quotidian experiences of the society that surrounds him, whether it is local or international themes. He believes that it is important that works of art can be understood and shared, so much by the art world as by the common societal members. Negron’s work was recently recognized in Phaidon’s ‘Art Cities of the Future: 21st- Century Avant-Gardes’, as one of the eight contemporary influencers of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Karlo Andrei Ibarra

Karlo Andrei Ibarra (b. 1982, San Juan, Puerto Rico) has a BFA in Painting from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2005). His work is heavily influenced by his own geopolitical context. Ibarra employs a wide variety of media that refer to conceptual art and mass media while addressing issues of social, political, cultural and geographic boundaries. His practice relies on social and political cognitions gathered from personal research, drawing correlations correlations between individual and national identities and make larger observations respective to a global community. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Recent exhibitions include: Ensayo para una isla estrella, La Ene – Nuevo Museo Energía de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Forma x forma, forman conforman, Roberto Paradise, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Genealogía del Ritmo, Diablo Rosso, Panama City, Panama (2014) y SincretITSMOs, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de San José, Costa Rica (2013). His work was included in the 3rd Buccharest Biennial (2008), the Poly/graphic Triennial of San Juan, Latin America and the Caribbean (2009, 2012), the 2nd Moscow Biennial for Young Art (2012), the Biennial of the Americas, Denver, Colorado (2010) and Novo Museo Tropical, TEOR/éTica, San José, Costa Rica (2012). He was awarded first prize at Inquieta Imagen, in the 6th edition of the Digital Art Award for Latin America and the Caribbean, at the Museo de Arte y Diseño in San José, Costa Rica, along with the People’s Choice Award at Optic Nerve, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art of North Miami (2011). He recently became part of the Artist Pension Trust’s Mexico City trust. His work has been reviewed in various international publications, and featured in Art Cities of the Future: Contemporary Avant Gardes, published by Phaidon Press (2013). His work is part of the collections of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan, PR; Museo de Arte y Diseño de San José in Costa Rica; Museo de Arte de la Universidad del Turabo in Caguas, PR; Ella Cisneros Fontanals Collection in Miami, FL; and other public and private collections.